Chris Cotton may well be the future of the blues, melding new school with old and turning in a 12-song classic that updates pre-War Piedmont blues with a passion. Cotton injects excitement into chestnuts like Willie McTell’s loping Dying Crapshooter’s Blues, Mississippi John Hurt’s breathtaking Louis Collins and a version of Skip James’ I’m So Glad that inspires as it thrills. Current compositions blend seamlessly with the past as evidenced by strong originals like his coolly calculated Come On and the beguiling title track. The result of a two-day jam session with Memphis and Clarksdale natives (including Big Jack Johnson on guitar and Adam Woodard on piano), Devil is ripe with spontaneous, yet studied, sounds that stick to your bones and won’t let go: like Cotton’s own Black Night, which features Big Jack on salacious slide and the spry Woodward on piano. The Devil may have died but he surely died happy.